


Argus Gaiden: NeoScum Side Side Stories

by LookWhosFhtagn



Category: Neoscum (Podcast)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 12:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20489045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LookWhosFhtagn/pseuds/LookWhosFhtagn





	Argus Gaiden: NeoScum Side Side Stories

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [NeoScum](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/515669) by Gannon Reedy, Casey Toney, Blair Brit, Mike Migdall, Eleni Sauvageau. 

Dearest Diary,

Hardship has been a constant presence in my life. As a child, I believed it to be a dreadful enemy: a monster, looming over me, spreading sadness, fear, and misery. It was the gnawing ache in my empty stomach and the hateful glare of my father. But as I grew up, I realized that hardship is a chance to struggle and to grow. To Improve. To show that you are better than the weight trying to drag you down. I made my mind a weapon, sharpened on the whetstone of the written word. I refined my body, a femme fatale Faust seeking to become the devil she made deals with. The world was Hell, but I would rise above it. I would govern it, as its Duchess.

Yet, here I sit, shaken to my core. My sisters are dead, killed by my own hubris. My body is broken, torn asunder by the claws of a feral feline and nearly killed by my own explosive ordnance. It took me two days to make it home, struggling to remain conscious as blood oozed from the stump where my left forearm had been. Only the tourniquet I fashioned from my belt kept me from exsanguination in the open wilds of the highway.

For the entire two-day sojourn, all I could think about was how I had failed. I had failed in acquiring new, ill-gotten gains for the Devil Grrls. I had failed in keeping my sisters alive. I had even failed in dying in a blaze of vengeful glory. Everything I had prided myself on was stripped away in the blink of an eye, leaving the ache of indignity and remorse.

Liquor does not help. Chems do not help. Each stitch burns with boundless shame. I swear I can feel my castaway arm feeding scavengers under the full moon. Whenever I close my eyes, I hear the sounds of death and I see the face of the woman with the cat ears and the man with the cybereye. And I know I will know no peace until I see them again and make them pay. And I will make them pay. That I swear here and now, to all the angels above and all the devils below.

Until Then,

Duchess M. M.


End file.
